Start Mobile just enabled the independent film Quality Of Life to promote their film via mobile art marketing.
Yumiko Kayukawa | Japan
I wrote a piece on mobile art at gotomobile.com where I’m guestwriting.
Monthly Archive for December, 2005
Interesting article by Roland Buerk at BBC News on how the mobile phone is an important economic driver for poor women in rural areas of Bangladesh.
In the area’s where there’s no fixed line telephone service, these ‘telephone ladies’ resell cellphone calls to village habitants with the assistance of Grameen bank who helps these women setting up their business through small start-up loans.
“Before I got the phone nobody respected me, …” Roshinara Begum said as she sat in the tin hut she uses as her office, clutching the phone that has changed her life.
Grameen bank has given loans to 180,000 telephone ladies so far, and 10,000 more are being signed up each month. The key to the success of the scheme is that it is not charity – every month Grameen gets $10m in revenue.
“At the same time customers are also benefiting because, even though they don’t have a phone, they are getting a phone service at cost price, at a market price.”
Russell had the cool idea to create a Best of the Year overview for the final Carnival of the Mobilists of 2005. To celebrate this special issue, he asked all the mobilist writers to send in their favourite piece from 2005 – and they haven’t disappointed…
Russell also invited some special guests this time so it’s really something you may not miss. Enjoy the Holidays and the reading!
Tags: Carnival Mobilists Carnival of the Mobilists
Last year during christmas period I discovered Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) / Communications for Life, a humanitarian NGO specialising in emergency telecommunications.
They were among the first organising help for the surivors of the terrible tsunami which devastated the coasts of 10 countries bordering the Indian Ocean last year. In just a few seconds, nearly 300,000 people perished.
Numerous areas affected by the tsunami were without means of communication for the population and the rescuers who were trying to reach them. Mobilised during the hours following news of the disaster, teams from TSF arrived in Thailand the same day, in collaboration with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC) based in Bangkok, then in Sri Lanka and Indonesia. You can read a report of all the litlle miracles these people did here.
But that’s not all… Other than in emergencies, telecommunications can be useful for development projects, so there are a lot of solidarity actions out there where TSF helps connecting the unconnected to communicate with others.
You can donate here to support their actions, what are you waiting for?
Télécoms sans Frontières is member of the United Nations Working Group of Nations Unies on Emergency Telecommunications (WGET), partner of the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) and member of the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA).
This week’s Carnival of the Mobilists is at C Enrique Ortiz, as usual not to be missed if you want to stay tuned on the latest opinions on what’s hot in mobile.
